Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Objective progress

Hey.

I've always thought that one of the keys tothe progressof the human racelays in theability tobreak awayfrom theprimal instinctsthat haveguidedthe evolutionso far, going from mere survival to a deep knowledge and objective analysis of the human being.

This concept can be applied to many fields of so-called progress but when the depth of analysis becomes greater and greater it begins to conflictradicallywith theexistingsociety models.

Psychologists use the term "socialization" to designate the process by which children are trained to think and act as society demands. A person is said to be well socialized if he believes in and obeys the moral code of his society and fits in well as a functioning part of that society.

The moral code of our society is so demanding that no one can think, feel and act in a completely moral way. For example, we are not supposed to hate anyone, yet almost everyone hates somebody at some time or other, whether he admits it to himself or not. Some people are so highly socialized that the attempt to think, feel and act morally imposes a severe burden on them. In order to avoid feelings of guilt, they continually have to deceive themselves about their own motives and find moral explanations for feelings and actions that in reality have a non-moral origin.

As he says, and this is objectively true, whether people admits it or not, the moral code of our society shapes the way we live in a manner that its not ours to decide, often imposing a severe burden on us.

Many people could take this assumptions as a form of anarchism or a blind way for one to oppose himself against anything that limits his liberty, but in this case we must divide the madness of an old man that later made him go as far as killing people because of it, and the true, radical meaning of his words.

Constructive criticism is the foundation of progress, whether or not it is about something as deep as the basic principles of human coexistence or morality.

History shows us that very often, radical changes were followed by some kind of violence, the reasons of which find their place in people's different opinions about important aspects of their way of living ( e.g. authoritarianism vs liberalism ) or about who should hold the power of government, or about the legitimacy of power, etc.

Whether this is a good or a bad sign, history has proven that we didn't have and don't have any control about this social mechanism yet, but we can surely draw an utopian conclusion: change is most likely leading to progress and there is nothing that we can do to stop the violence that comes with it or...

8 comments:

Mind if i ask you how old you are? I feel you are taking life to serious for being that young. Im not saying that what you posted is very interesting, in fact, it is. But having all that stuff in your head making all that sound, plus if im not mistaken, a rough background, will most of the time, lead to a beginning of sociopathic behavior. As a very high IQ kid myself let me give you this piece of advice, dont take yourself nor life too seriously. Enjoy yourself. Thank me later.